In addition to the usual reviews and comments you would find on a horror movie blog, this is also a document of the wonderfully vast horror movie section of the video store I worked at in my youth.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Dark Desires.

A film that I just narrowly missed at
Fantasia was Charles de Lauzirika's character piece Crave, so I was
glad to see it make it to the Big Smoke as part of Toronto After Dark.

Crime photographer Aiden (Josh Lawson)
leads a very solitary existence and spends his time fantasizing to
the point of hallucination. When he strikes up a relationship with
neighbour Virginia (Emma Lung), his daydreams begins to interfere with him
living the life he has been so desperately searching for.

I have mixed feeling about this film.
On a technical level, Crave is a superb little indie with a look that
fully represents Aiden's inner turmoil. However,
the problems of the piece largely reside with said main
character. I'd like to first point out that it has nothing to do
with Lawson's performance as he is top-notch and conveys Aiden's
neurotic awkwardness effortlessly. It has more to do with the fact that, as the movie progresses, Aiden becomes more and more unlikable to the
point that it is hard to even root for him anymore. I don't think
that was the intention, but that's how it came across to me.
Although, it is possible I was just reacting to the off-putting realization that I related to a good chunk of what happens in this movie.

Josh Lawson (left) and Ron Perlman in Crave.

Fortunately, Aiden's AA sponsor Pete,
played by genre vet Ron Perlman, shows up at several points to break
things up a bit. It was really great to see him portray someone a
little less animated and flamboyant, but he still, of course, brings the
same Perlman grit to the role. The little anecdotes Pete imparts to
Aiden over the course of the film are some of the best parts of the
movie.

One thing I really appreciated was, how
much Detroit was a part of this story. Rather than just a nameless
metropolis, director de Lauzirika makes sure he plants somewhere recognizable and it
heightens the realism of the piece, much like American indie icons Larry Cohen & Bill Lustig did with New York in, among others, God Told Me To & Maniac, respectively.

Conveying inner monologues for an
entire movie is a tough job, but for the most part de
Lauzirika succeeds, even if the abundant what-if scenarios do wear a
little thin by the end. As he said during the Q&A, de Lauzirika
was aware that he might only get one shot at making a film, so he
wanted to put in as much as possible. This is likely why a lot of
Crave feels that it comes from a very personal place. It is
uncomfortable to watch at times, seeing someone unconsciously
sabotage their own happiness, but it at least seems to come from a sincere place.

Director Charles de Lauzirika.

Crave is a solid effort, but one that
didn't really leap off the screen at me. It's a pretty morose little
fable about the minutiae of modern life and getting so caught up in
the unimportant that you neglect the stuff that is really relevant.
It's a valid lesson, but I just wish that the message bearer hadn't been so detestable by the film's end.